The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-07-28
VIEWS ON MIXING FAMILY BLOOD.
Tho Royal Families ofEurope Illustrate
the Harm of Such Practice.

aSSf'Cl2teU WIN inc name III CutIleo Du'
win, though in reality they were all but
recognized by men who worked before his
time, is the law that cross f'riili2ation IN
plants produces fine and stroEge' offspring
than self-fertilizatiOn, and that sef-iertillza-
ton, continued long enough, leads to degra-
dation and eventually extinction.
! Sprengel, between 1850 and 1913, had IN
reality gone very near 20 prove this lie
noticed that in some plants Standardization
| is absolutely impossible. 50 that they
are. as it were, compelled by nature to
maintain their kind in the only way which
! is for the advantage of plant races-that IS,
| by cross fertilization. SIN sOmc instances,
says Grant Allen, as he showed by expert
mcnts upon the yellow day lily, plants
impregnated from their own stamenS can
not be made to succeed at ALL $50 near
says Herman Muller, twas Sprengel to the
distinct recognition of the fact that self
| fertilization leads to worse results than
Decentralization, and that NIL the arrange
meOts which favor insect visits are of value
to the plant itself simply because the insect
visitors effect cross-fertiliZltion." Hence 1T
| is, concluded Sprengel, that nature has
provided flowers with honey or nectar;
hence it is that by projections from rain,
| flowers invite the visits of bees and other
! insects; and here do we find the reason why
the cOrola presents bright hues and mark
| inCs, and why the blossoms distill sweet
perfume. These are simply natures plans
to insure the visits of insects so that cross
| fertilization may be effected.
It was here that Darwin diverged from
| Sprengel, and so led to the recognition of
new truth. 1t is not because cross fcrtiliza-
ton is better for the plaIT that nature has
provided all these devices for securing it,
but because every variation by which
| plant CHANGED to be more attractive than
| its fellows to its insect visitors, that plants
| SO fortunate became more prolific than those
which, being less attractive, received fewer
visits from the insect world. Thus there
was greater increase of the more nttrac-
| tive flowers, and by the renewal of the fit
teSt-quite as effective process as the sur
vival of the fittest-the plant was developed
| to more and more attractive forms.
Thus in the sweet perfumes and lovely
colonis perhaps even in the graceful forms
of our flowers we have evidence of the law
of development by infinitesimal variations
advantageous to the plant, and also we have
evidence of the unfavOrabe effects of cross
fertilization.
What is true of vegetable life is true also
of animal life. interviewing within too
| limited an area is always in the long run
injurious, and often leads to actual eXtinc-
ton. Among human beings, as well as
| among the lower animals, the Same law can
be recognized. Here and there the marriage
of cousins may not lead to marked detorior
alton at any rate, in the immediate Off
| spring-which must, however, be by no
means regarded as proving that there IS no
race deterioration But repeated intermar
riages within the same family invariably
lead to marked evidence of degeneration
Madness, idioCJ melancholy, epilepsy,
| hystera deafness, and number of other
evil effects manifest themselves inevitably
l., fnssf1T
nately, once established, they seem cstab-
lished for good; it is much easier to breed
epilepsy into family than it is to breed it
out again and the like with madness, idiocy,
and the rest
| 1t is, indeed, easy to cite cases which seem
| to negative this, In particularly strong
and healthy family there may be marriages
for several generations without any mani
| fest signs of evil. But those do harm, and
sanction, if they do not enjoin, most
| pernicious doctrine, who insist on these eX-
ceptional cases as proving that intermar-
| riage between persons separated by con
/ siderable number of steps in kinship is not
harmful In England the marriage of first
cousins is permitted, while marriage with
a deceased wife's sister is prohibited or, at
any rate, not sanctioned. But nature has a
| different law, sanctioning what English
law rejects, rejecting-aye, and Furnishing
heavily-what English law permits.
| A curious example OF the misChievous
nature of intermarllages within too limited
an area is afforded in The island of St. Kilda.
| There small and diminishing population
| who regarded themselves as the salt of the
earth, but are not so regarded by the rest
of the world, decline to honor aliens witt
their alliance, or perhaps have no choice
not being chosen by aliens as suitable part
ners Here, then, we have interviewing
| such as many imagine to have taken place
among the children of Adam, and again
| among the descendants of Noah and those
three ladies who were good enough to ac
company his sons, their husbands, into tho
ark, and yet again the children of Abraham
| Isaac and Jacob. Nothing could preserve
the descendants of a single pair, or even O
dozen pairs, from utter degradation, and
ere long extinction; it would have needed
no Serpent's wiles or speech to bring ''deatl
into the world" an end to ''all our woes.
| Only succession of miracles could have
kept the world alive. At st. Kilda, where
once was n goodly assemblage of human
beings, the process of intermarriage has
brought about such a state of things thai
half the children die few days after birti
of lockiaw That the inhabitants of St
Kilda arc semi-idiotic is proved by much
that is known of their ways and habits
Perhaps the nero fact that they continu,
to intermarry after having evidence SC
| clear that the practlce Is injurious, may MOI
unfairly Toe regarded as of itself affordinc
proof positive of their low state of mental
culture.
1t may be asked how it is that the roya
family Of England, for example, escape the
manifold Affections, bodily, moral, and
mental, resulting from iutermarriage OF
cousins. The English royal family has a
toerably wide range of German cousins, OF
cousins German, TO choose from-though
being itself almost full German blood this
of itself does not indicate n reason for e5cap.
ing the evil effects of interbrCcling. Possibly
those effects are not altogether escaped
George |. was a pig headed bully and Gsorgl
III. only differed in being rather more so
| George Ill. was never really sane, auC
often very insane. George ". was, as q
man, proiligate as the annals OF even roya
scamps record. OF William ". the Grevi'lC
memoirs show us enough to leave little
doubt in any reasonable mind that he wa.
something between George III. and George
", or as Sheridan Said-whcn George
asked him whether he (Sheridanl was NOR,
knave than fool, Sherry walking at the time
between George and another blackguard-
he was something between knava and fool
What the Queen is or has been tut,u,
records alone will properly show; mona OF
those who really know would venture &c
say what they really think. But it may be
said without any ilnproprity that she has
been subject ike George III, to fits oi
melancholy, which would he unreasonable
If they were not due TO an inherited consti-